John Hartson

Even though the last twenty years have bought about fantastic advances in the battle against cancer and Doctors can better treat the disease, the dreaded C word can still strike terror into our hearts.

The latest high profile victim is the ex footballer John Hartson the former Celtic west ham and Arsenal striker has testicular cancer,  this particular cancer has a good survival rate and does respond well to treatment if caught early enough,  in John’s case though it has spread very quickly to other parts of his body his brain and lungs taking the brunt of it.

Though he is in good hands and is receiving the best treatment the prognosis is not good and it will be a miracle if he is to beat this awful illness, but  John is a fighter and as tough as they come you only need to ask some of the defenders that came up against him in a glittering career. In 1995 he moved to Arsenal for 2.5 million pounds a record at the time for a teenager, he also earned 51 caps for Wales, in 1997  he moved on from Arsenal becoming surplus to requirements after they signed Dennis Bergkamp, he went  to West ham for a then club record of 3.2 million pounds. he was the second highest scorer in  his first full season for the hammers that year  behind Andy Cole.

In 1998 he was caught on camera kicking his club mate  Eyal Berkovic in the face after a training ground incident, following that he was moved on to Wimbledon again a club record signing this time for 7.5 million. he had a respectable scoring record there though he was plagued with injury. ending with him signing a pay as you play deal with Coventry.

Though he later had 5 successful seasons with Celtic, surgery put an end to a glorious career. I wish John Hartson all the best and will keep my fingers crossed that the hard man can win one more time.